Fairfax's St. Rita School wins chance to stay open

More than 400 supporters of St. Rita School in Fairfax rose to their feet and delivered a thundering ovation Wednesday night as the pastor announced, "It was decided today to reconsider the decision to close the school."

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone Wednesday morning agreed to consider a revised plan for the school that could keep it open, the pastor said.

To keep the school open, families who are behind in their tuition payments must make up the amount in arrears, which amounts to $100,000; the school must fully cover its operating deficit for the current school year, which is between $250,000 and $300,000; and the school must develop a financially viable operating budget for next year.

The school must also have enough students enrolled to generate enough tuition to pay the bills and tuition fundraising revenues must exceed operating expenditures.

St. Rita School teaches children from preschool through eighth grade, but enrollment has dropped over the past two years from 151 to the current enrollment of 133. While most of the school's annual budget of $1.3 million comes from tuition, only 95 students are paying full tuition. The school is providing $158,000 in tuition assistance this year.

"I am just so grateful for this second chance to keep this special school open. I've been here nine years — we are like family here," said fourth-grade teacher Jenny Bautista during the meeting, which was held in the church adjoining the school in downtown Fairfax.

"My son told me, 'I prayed to Saint Pio and told him to ask Jesus to keep the school open,'" said Jenny Scott, whose 6-year-old son William is a student at the school.

The decision came after parents, alumni, teachers and community members made an all-out effort to save the school. An anonymous donor pledged to donate $200,000 to the cause if matching funds could be raised, and as of Wednesday night, "we are close to matching that $200,000," the Rev. Ken Weare, the parish priest who oversees St. Rita School, said.

Weare had announced last month that the parochial school, which opened its doors in 1957, would close this summer.

Hundreds of people attended two meetings to fight the closure on the previous two Sundays, according to Brenna Gubbins of Fairfax, who organized the meetings. Gubbins has two daughters attending school at St. Rita.

The six members of the St. Rita Parish School advisory board drove to San Francisco Wednesday morning to speak with Monsignor James Tarantino, vicar for administration and moderator of the Curin for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and Maureen Huntington, superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

"Monsignor made the statement, 'We are not about closing schools,'" Jack Grehan, a St. Rita's parent and the board's president, told the group.

After Grehan and the board made their pitch, "Monsignor excused himself from the room and went to talk to the Archbishop. After 15 minute, he came back and said, 'OK,'" Grehan said.

"We're clearly in the race, but not across the finish line," Grehan said.

In addition to collecting overdue tuition, raising enough to cover this year's shortfall and developing a financially viable operating budget for next year, the church officials and the Catholic school superintendent outlined longer-term goals for St. Rita, Grehan said.

The advisory board took questions from those in attendance, many of whom pledged to raise money for the school.

"I decided to ask all the seniors to donate $500. So far I have close to $6,000," said Tony Raffo of Fairfax, whose three children went to St. Rita. In an interview, Raffo said, "I want the school to continue. I have been in this parish 53 years."

With directions from the archdiocese in hand, the board sat down immediately after the meeting to begin addressing the benchmarks assigned to the school, Weare said.

"The school board will be meeting every day this week," the pastor said. "The two big steps are to have parishioners and school families encourage friends to send their kids here and to make contributions."

Cecilia Berardi of San Anselmo, a fourth-grade student at the school, said she was happy at the news. "There's lots of nice students and teachers here," said Berardi, who is in Bautista's class.

"When I heard the school was going to close, I was bummed. Now I'm relieved," said her classmate Josephine Kelly of Fairfax.

"My grandmother taught kindergarten here for 34 years," said Angelica Valerio of Fairfax. "I prayed that the school would stay open."

"The Fairfax community strongly supports the decision to keep St. Rita School, which has been active here for decades as an important educational institution, open and thriving," said Fairfax Councilman David Weinsoff.